AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Esh Winning: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page aside for now, leave your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Esh Winning. Reading before the event? In that case what follows explains why it comes about and how to stop it happening at all.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Esh Winning and Cornsay Colliery carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Many of motors share a single flap for both, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less frequently. It is in that gap that the error happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Esh Winning: how it occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running dry leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Station View, or at Stags Head Hotel on the way home that evening.
The old car's cap is where your hand goes — yet a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers elsewhere. That's a second factor: a strange motor.
Third, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in as readily, and once the tip begins, nothing halts it. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Esh Winning or out in Waterhouses.
The AdBlue filler and the diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in New Brancepeth or a forecourt around Esh Winning, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones normally aren't.
- The size. On many motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Durham.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Anywhere in Durham the light comes on, this is a routine for that day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Newhouse Road, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Stop when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Esh Winning already?
Brief list, then. First: your engine stays off. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Diluting it with extra diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Cross Roads Garage, Mount Pleasant Garage or any forecourt will normally help pushing your car clear when you ask. On your own drive in Esh Winning? Then your car stays where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the engine has already run. On the A1(M), under 10 miles from Esh Winning, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Crossing Esh Winning is less a job than a run of under 5 miles to Durham, so tell us.
Our arrival around Esh Winning, and what occurs next
Our technicians come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Esh Winning Academy, close to Esh Winning Baptist Church or on your own driveway. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run, because those answers determine the work and the quote. No one heads out before you have heard the quote by phone.
The system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. That is why it matters more. Filter cleaned or, if needed, swapped; fresh diesel in; and then a check of your car. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running correctly.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we arrive, provided the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Esh Winning itself
Esh Winning is a village in County Durham, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 131 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Esh Winning lies approximately 4.9 miles from the city of Durham and is close to nearby places such as Waterhouses, Esh, and Quebec. Esh Winning has a population of around 2414 people and is located in the North East region of England, about 234.7 miles from London.
Esh Winning and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout DH postcodes, our vans that cover Esh Winning — a village — work the surrounding places too, Quebec and Esh among them. Give a postcode beginning DH7 9, and the van arrives quickest.
Shifting the car isn't needed. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Ragpath Wood, a side street close to BVM Queen of Martyrs: we drain the car where it is. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Waterhouses Village Hall, ring and ask rather than assuming.
For Esh Winning motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway, leave the car off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel clears it where it waits, anywhere around Durham.